France holds religious ceremonies as any hope of finding survivors fades
A crew member of the French Breguet Atlantique plane on a search mission for Flight AF 447. Debris thought to be from that plane was seen on the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
RIO DE JANEIRO - IT WAS a tragic end for Brazilian plastic surgeon Roberto Correa Chem, 66, and his family. Accompanied by his wife, Vera Chem, 63, a psychologist, and their daughter, Leticia Chem, 36, a manager at telecommunication company Oi, the three had boarded Air France Flight 447 at Rio de Janeiro to fly to Paris.
The family is missing after the plane went down over the Atlantic early this week with 228 passengers and crew on board. The Brazilians have spotted debris strewn along the ocean and have sent rescue ships to the area.
Meanwhile, Brazil has declared three days of national mourning in memory of the 228 people presumed dead in an Air France crash off its coast, while France is holding religious ceremonies to remember the missing.
The passengers on the plane, which was nearly halfway through its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, included 32 nationalities, mostly French or Brazilian.
As with any airline disaster, there were stories of cruel coincidences and bright young lives cut short by the crash of Air France flight AF 447, which was confirmed on Tuesday by Brazil's military.
'My son died on his birthday,' said a tearful Diana Raquel, mother of British-based Brazilian dentist Jose Rommel Amorim, who turned 35 on Sunday and had been visiting his family before catching the flight.
Ms Aisling Butler, 26, was one of three young Irish doctors - one of them a Riverdance performer - returning from a vacation to Brazil. Her father, John, initially thought she was booked on a different flight and had to retrieve her itinerary from his deleted e-mail folder to check.
'When I opened it up, a nightmare opened up as well,' said Mr Butler, speaking from the family's home in rural County Tipperary.
Ms Butler was with Ms Eithne Walls, 29, and Ms Jane Deasy, 28, the daughter of a Dublin surgeon. They had all graduated together from Ireland's Trinity College medical school in 2007 and had spent two weeks in Brazil as part of a larger group.
Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times
